Cardio is the most natural, most effective type of workout for those of you who are looking to lose weight or even tone your muscles. Since outdoor cardio is not for everyone, the gym becomes a safe space for people to exercise. There is plenty of equipment at the gym, but not everything is for cardio. Some of them are for flexibility, some of them are for increasing muscle mass. The best ones for cardio exercises are listed below.
Treadmill
A treadmill is the standard cardio equipment. It’s easy, it’s useful, and it’s fun. Yes, exercising on a treadmill doesn’t have to be just a ‘fast-paced walking that goes into running’ routine. You can spice things up and do high-intensity cardio by running at super speed for a short amount of time, resting, and then doing it again.
This HIIT cardio lasts for only 15 minutes but burns the same amount of calories as going for a 40 minute regular run on the treadmill. You can also practice agility, by running sideways or tone your glutes by doing squat jumps on the treadmill.
Running on a treadmill is also a great warm-up exercise if you’re going to do an intense workout right after, such as boxing. It helps to alert your muscles so you would avoid crams during the workout. A run on the treadmill for thirty minutes every day has proven to help a lot of people lose weight and becoming stronger and healthier.
Stairmill
A stairmill, or as many people also call Stairmaster, is a more challenging version of a treadmill. It allows you to burn calories by running up the stairs, on a machine. You can feel the burn faster when you do your cardio exercise on the stairmill instead of a treadmill because it puts pressure on your thighs. Just like the treadmill, you can be innovative and do different kinds of exercises on it. You can challenge yourself and try to carry some weights while walking on the stairmill, or do squat jumps. However, if you lose focus, you can easily slip and fall from the stairmill. So, make sure that you’re not distracted by anything or set a speed that is too much for you because landing on the stairmill can lead to more injuries than if you fall on a treadmill.
Spin Bike
The spinning bike has been more popular recently because of the spin classes from the gym. And going on spin classes are more effective, because they’ve got instructors that make the exercise interesting. Or else, you’d just be cycling and cycling, and you’d quickly get bored, even if the spin bike has a screen where you can watch movies.
Using spin bikes is a challenge because if you don’t set it up to the right speed, you don’t burn a significant amount of calories. However, you do burn more calories on this equipment than if you were to go on a treadmill instead. Your thigh muscles will be easily toned, but prepare for back pain on your first day because spinning requires you to bend.